The Home Machinist!

Do keep in mind that in the process of machining a side of a piece of material that stresses are relieved, so flatness will be sacrificed. In order for you to achieve flatness, you must remove like amounts of material from each face, alternately taking cuts. When you have achieved a full cut on both...

For gripping square stock, a two jaw chuck is preferred, as it will grip four sides evenly. There's no way in hell that a four jaw scroll chuck can grip material on all sides. If for no other reason, error in the scroll. That's why three jaw scroll chucks are so common. They will always load evenly,...

Hmmm. When I dial in the head (I don't like the term "tram". That's related to the timing of a steam engine, not the condition of a mill spindle) of my mill, I want it to be dead perpendicular (keeping in mind that a new mill is generally sent out with the front of the table slightly higher than the...

I avoid both of those options for one good reason. When roughing with negative rake carbide, the chips are wicked hot. I have the burn scarred neckline to prove that point. The hot chips make short work of plastics.

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Nice setup. Brings to mind the right angle bracket that is (was?) sold by Bridgeport to mount their rotabs for horizontal use. In their case, there's a pair of bolt on brackets (handles and clamping surfaces) that can be removed from the rotab to reduce the overall height when so mounted. The right ...

Knowing the alloy and hardness can make a difference, although there are no hard to machine aluminum alloys (that excludes aluminum bronze). 2024 T351 is a shear pleasure to machine. 7075-T6 and 6061-T6 are also quite nice to machine. Unless you have a high speed spindle, no need to worry about how ...

it would stick out of the chuck way too far to risk center drilling in the lathe. Not true. Because the pressure of the cut is along the centerline of the material, it has little reason to deflect. If your chuck will hold the material well enough to support it without sagging, you will enjoy succes...

Doesn't surprise me a bit, Greg. When I worked at Sperry, the sheet metal shop was adjacent to the machine shop. They used air drills for all holes for the riveting that was accomplished on the brake system skin, so they were constantly drilling. While they were drilling aluminum, not steel, it made...

If you're not familiar with Sunnen hones, it may help you to know that it would likely be cost prohibitive (if you choose to do the work yourself) for you to go that route, thus seeking a shop with one is your best choice. Here's why. Bore size will dictate the size of mandrel you'd need, then you'd...

A tragedy, to be sure. In my many years of machining, primarily defense and aero-space, it was often necessary to submit a "first article" for inspection. When doing so, any errors that may have been made are detected, so corrections can be made before the production run. Setup time can be extensive...

Heh! For starters, if you've having trouble breaking HSS drill bits, don't even think about carbide, which is akin to drilling with glass at that diameter. It's hard and heat resistant, but fragile beyond belief. It's not clear how you're drilling, or what material you're trying to drill, but to get...

I'm using Avast free. Doesn't mean it's a good choice, but it has worked nicely for me. Truth is, I'm not able to judge these things, as I don't understand computers well.

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